Reputed leader of Black Disciples street gang among 23 arrested in federal drug takedown

[Valin]

Chicago Tribune

Jason Meisner and Jeremy Gorner

Jul 29, 2020

The reputed leader of the Black Disciples street gang was among 23 people arrested in a federal gang takedown involving drug and weapons trafficking in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, federal authorities announced Wednesday.

Darnell McMiller, 34, who goes by the street name “Murder,” was charged with distribution of fentanyl-laced heroin to a cooperating individual last September in the 7000 block of South Lowe Avenue, according to court records.

McMiller, of Chicago, is described in the charges as the current leader of the Black Disciples, a national street gang founded in the city in the 1960s. Also charged was Clarence January, who allegedly leads the gang’s “Dog Pound” faction, and Charles Knight, an alleged high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples accused of supplying narcotics to McMiller’s crew.

McMiller’s arrest came a little more than a year after his release from federal prison on a separate narcotics conspiracy conviction. Records show he was sentenced to eight years behind bars in 2014 and released in mid-2019. Within weeks, he was captured on undercover FBI wiretaps attempting to arrange new drug pipelines for the gang, according to the charges.

(Snip)